Other witnesses stopped and tried to extricate 28-year-old Mark Penney, the only other survivor in that pickup, who had a broken wrist and other injuries, but was conscious and answering questions.

Within a couple of minutes, the truck that had passed Lefebvre caught fire. He found 11-year-old Faith Kondusky-Sennett lying in the back seat and helped pull her out. They kept her alive until an air ambulance arrived, but the girl later died at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton.

Men grabbed crowbars and fire extinguishers and tried to pry open the driver's door, where Kondusky-Sennett's father was still alive. There weren't enough extinguishers to keep the flames down. They had to walk away.

Timothy clung to Eli Day, Lefebvre's passenger and co-worker, for an hour until paramedics arrived.

Later, after talking to paramedics, police and victims services, Lefebvre got into his truck and cancelled his work for the next two days.

He counts himself among those calling for the highway to be twinned. A frequent driver of the route, he saw recently, in one day, five accidents, 43 illegal passes and six emergency vehicles in one approximate 200-kilometre stretch.

"I travel the highway all the time," he said. "I've seen many horrible accidents."

Friday's crash occurred in a passing zone about 50 kilometres north of Wandering River. Lefebvre said the northbound truck pulled out just before the double line.

"It was horrific. I've got to be honest," Lefevbre said. "It was not something that I was in any shape prepared for. I like to think I kept a level head or was able to help as much as possible."

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